Adria Sauceda, shown in childhood pictures, was raped and bludgeoned to death.

Adria Sauceda, shown in childhood pictures, was raped and bludgeoned to death.

Photo: Helen L. Montoya, San Antonio Express-News

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Texas presses for Mexican's execution

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Texas thumbed its nose at the White House and the United Nations on Tuesday as it cleared the way for Thursday's execution of Humberto Leal Garcia Jr., a Mexican national who was denied access to his nation's consulate after being arrested for a San Antonio rape-murder.

His fate now rests with the U.S. Supreme Court, which is considering a stay of execution request from the Obama administration.

Leal, 38, was sentenced to die for the May 24, 1994, murder of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda. The girl was found naked on a rural road in San Antonio after being raped and then bludgeoned with a chunk of asphalt.

Acting without a pardons board recommendation, Gov. Rick Perry could grant a 30-day stay. His spokeswoman, Katherine Cesinger, said the governor has not yet decided, but historically he rarely grants such requests.

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A reprieve for Leal, if granted by the Supreme Court, might give Congress time to act on a bill introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, that would provide for federal review of capital cases involving foreigners denied consulate contact.

About 100 convicted killers nationwide would be eligible for such reviews.

Leahy's bill is an outgrowth of a 2004 U.N. world court decision, stemming from a Mexican lawsuit against the United States, that hearings be held for dozens of inmates to determine if their cases had been hurt by their inability to contact their consulates.

In 2005, then-President George W. Bush called for the hearings to take place in state courts. Texas appealed, and in 2008 the Supreme Court held that only Congress could order such hearings.

Ex-diplomats spurned

Tuesday's parole board decision to deny a reprieve came despite a June plea from six former diplomats urging the stay be granted. In a letter to Perry and the board, they warned that the security of Americans detained on charges while traveling or living abroad depends on signers of the Vienna Convention — including the U.S. - honoring their treaty obligations.

Leal's lawyer, Northwestern University law professor Sandra Babcock, said the paroles board also disregarded pleas from military leaders, judges, prosecutors and the federal government in a decision that would "undermine the international interests of the United States."

Not first time in spotlight

Last week, three members of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals - which rejected a separate Leal plea for a stay - suggested that the paroles board and Perry might act in the killer's behalf even though the court could not.

If the Mexican-born Leal, who has lived in the United States since age 2, is executed, it will mark the second time in four years that Texas has defied international demands that it observe the Vienna Convention.

In August 2008, the state executed Mexican citizen Jose Medellin for the 1993 strangulation of two Houston teenagers, Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena.

"Texas is not bound by a foreign court's ruling," Cesinger said. "The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the treaty was not binding on states and that the president does not have authority to order review of cases of foreign nationals on death row in the U.S."